Thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members.
The Canadian Bar Association welcomes the opportunity to appear before you today on the Canada Not-for-profit Corporations Act. We consider this to be very important legacy legislation that you are considering today.
The Canadian Bar Association is a national association representing over 37,000 jurists from across Canada. The analysis of Bill C-4 was done with members from our national charities and not-for-profit law section and from our national business law section. These are the eminent practitioners in these areas of law, and indeed there are elements of both areas of law in this important bill.
In looking at this bill--it was an extensive process--the CBA members were keeping in mind our primary objectives, which are improvement in the law and improvement in the administration of justice. It's under those considerations that we have made our recommendations to this committee.
I'll just make a note about the paper you have in front of you. You have an executive summary that highlights the priority issues from the bill, from the CBA's perspective, and a list of our recommendations. A far more extensive brief was prepared and sent to the minister last month, so a complete analysis of all of those recommendations is in that larger brief. We would be willing to expand on any of the recommendations you have in front of you.
Mr. Gray and Mr. Stevens will comment on the substance of the recommendations. I might note that not only have they participated in the CBA's analysis of this bill but they have also co-chaired a committee of the Bar Association that reviewed similar Ontario legislation that is under consideration. So they bring a vast amount of knowledge and expertise to this bill.
I will ask Mr. Gray and then Mr. Stevens to make those comments.